Lockheed AQM-60 Kingfisher

The Lockheed AQM-60 Kingfisher, first designated XQ-5, was a target drone version of the Air Force X-7 ramjet test aircraft, built by the Lockheed Corporation and designed by Kelly Johnson, who later created the A-12, the SR-71 Blackbird and the YF-12. The X-7 effort began in 1946 after a request for a Mach 3 unmanned test vehicle, and the Kingfisher grew from it to test anti-missile systems such as the Nike Ajax, the Nike Hercules and the Bomarc. It flew on a Marquardt ramjet with two solid-fuel rocket boosters and was able to evade most of the weapons it was meant to be tested against, which embarrassed the Air Force and had political fallout. Production was discontinued in 1959 and the project was cancelled in the mid-1960s. Its engine was later adapted for the Bomarc missile and for the Lockheed D-21 drone.